Eagles Notes: Birds lament missed chance on final play

Naturally the Eagles, who said they needed one more play to prevail following their gut-wrenching loss to the Steelers Sunday, were the same people talking about numerous plays they failed to make throughout the rainy afternoon.

Lost in the defeat was the single play the Eagles had a chance to make but didn’t. It came on the last play of the game, Shaun Suisham’s 34-yard field goal as time expired.

While Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie made a valiant effort to snuff the kick and send the Eagles home victorious, flying in off the edge, the Eagles blew the opportunity to use their strength against what looked like a weakness near the weak side of the formation.

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“What made me really mad was we didn’t get enough rush on our field goal block,” Jason Avant said. (The Steelers) got real low. We went to the short man’s side. They’ve got a couple of short guys on that side.”

Avant didn’t name names.

While teammates crashed into the Steelers protecting the left center of the field, King Dunlap was a split-second slow using his 6-foot-9 length to sky over the mess. The Eagles blew a size advantage.

That said, DRC almost put the exclamation point on the game for the Eagles.

“Coach April had a good scheme,” Colt Anderson said of the Eagles’ special teams coach. “We came real close but no cigar.”

It was that kind of day.

One more play and …

“Tt’s frustrating to lose in a game like this,” Avant said. “Especially when you feel like you’re just as good or better than the other team. We felt like we let them off the hook a little bit with some early turnovers and just some sporadic plays offensively.

“We put the defense in bad spots.”

Special teams standout Anderson kick-started the Eagles on the kickoff to open the second half, nailing Chris Rainey at the eight-yard line of the Steelers.

When the Eagles got the ball, Michael Vick threw a 15-yard scoring reception to LeSean McCoy, pulling them within 10-7.

Rainey burst 44 yards on the ensuing kickoff to get the Steelers field position. Not as bad as last week, when the Giants gashed them continuously. But again, one play short.

“We’ve still got some work to do,” Anderson said. “We had a big play inside the 15 then we gave up a longer one. We’ve got some work to do.

Unreported was cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who tweaked his right ankle.

They’ll be evaluated again Monday.

Reid bristled when asked why the run defense that limited the Steelers to 40 yards in the first half surrendered 96 in the second half.

“They had a pretty good running back (come) back,” Reid said of Rashard Mendenhall, who made his season debut. “That helped the cause. He played pretty well. They got us.”

Mendenhall had 14 rushes for 81 yards and a touchdown, the score coming on a 13-yard shuffle pass from Ben Roethlisberger.

NOTES: McCoy had 16 rushes for 53 yards, four receptions for 27 yards … Jeremy Maclin led the Birds with five receptions. DeSean Jackson topped the team with 58 receiving yards on four catches … Steelers receiver Antonio Brown, after calling Eagles rookie Brandon Boykin “The Candy Bar,” led the team with seven receptions for 86 yards.